Tanzania not aware
of any deal for construction
of grand hydropower project - says Presidency

DAR ES SALAAM
Tanzania (Xinhua) --The government of
Tanzania said on Tuesday it was not aware of any deal to award
the tender for the construction of the Stiegler’s gorge
hydropower project to Egyptian company Arab Contractors.

Gerson Msigwa, Director of Presidential Communication at State
House, said: "I haven’t seen those reports."

Msigwa was commenting on reports from the presidential palace
in the Egyptian capital Cairo saying Arab Contractors has
apparently outbid over 50 other international companies to build
what is officially known as the Rufiji Hydropower Project at
Stiegler’s gorge along the Rufiji River.

President John Magufuli telephoned his Egyptian counterpart,
President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, on Sunday to formally inform him
about the decision to award the tender for the mega project to
the Cairo-based construction company, according to a statement
from Egyptian presidential spokesman Bassam Rady.

Al-Sisi has accepted Magufuli’s invitation to attend a
ground-breaking ceremony to mark commencement of the
construction work at a date to be announced later, Egyptian
media reported on Tuesday.

The Tanzanian government invited bids last year to build a
2,100-megawatt (MW) hydroelectric plant inside the Selous Game
Reserve, a World Heritage site renowned for its animal
populations, despite opposition from conservationists to the
long-delayed project.

The Arab Contractors company announced on Monday that it has
won a tender to execute the biggest hydroelectric dam in
Tanzania, in partnership with Egyptian cable maker ElSewedy
Electric.

The two companies submitted an offer to build a hydroelectric
dam in the Stiegler’s gorge, with investments worth about 3
billion dollars, according to latest media reports from Egypt.

However, the project has courted local and global
controversy, with conservationists calling for a comprehensive
strategic environmental assessment before the project is
implemented.

"The impact on Tanzania’s largest river would affect many
ecosystem services it provides. It would affect tourism in
Selous downstream in some of the most abundant wildlife areas in
the game reserve," conservation group WWF said in a report last
year.

President Magufuli has dismissed the concerns, saying only a
tiny fraction of the Selous would be used to build the proposed
hydropower dam.

A hydropower dam at Stiegler’s gorge was considered by the
Tanzanian government since the 1960s, but the project never took
off due to lack of funding.

Magufuli considers the project as key to solving the
country’s energy needs, saying it would lead to the generation
of cheap, abundant electricity to power the government’s
industrial drive.

Magufuli recently slammed a new environment audit of the
project by a team of Tanzanian experts and ordered his
government to change recommendations of the report in favor of
broader "national interests."

"I have already issued instructions that they should change
the recommendations of the report by the so-called Tanzanian
environmental experts," the president declared.

He dismissed recommendations of the experts, which he said
call for environment screening of all construction materials and
other objects brought to the site of the project to minimize any
possible impact to the surrounding area..